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At the second CAFRE/Teagasc dairy calf-to-beef webinar held last Thursday, Kilkeel farmer James Henderson outlined his strategy to maximise beef produced from grass.
Finishing around 90 beef x dairy heifers each year alongside a sheep flock of 310 ewes and ewe lambs on the 60ha farm, continual improvements to grassland management have allowed less concentrate to be fed.
Over the last five to six years, lifetime concentrate usage per finished heifer has fallen from around 1.3t down to a figure in 2019 of 639kg.
Calves are bought in the autumn, so are able to go to grass in the spring without any supplementary feeding
“I would like to think we could take that further down, perhaps as low as 400kg to 450kg per head,” said James.
To achieve that will require the majority of weight gain post-weaning to be from grass and forage. Calves are bought in the autumn, so are able to go to grass in the spring without any supplementary feeding. The aim in the first grazing season is to achieve daily weight gains of 0.9kg to 1kg per day.
Heifers are “stored” over the next winter, with little to no concentrate fed (depending on silage quality), and an aim to achieve 0.5kg to 0.7kg per day of weight gain, so that heifers show compensatory growth when turned out the following spring.
They are finished at 22 to 24 months at a carcase of 320g to 340kg. The majority are finished at grass with no concentrate fed. Some lighter heifers go back inside for a short finishing period.
Paddocks
The cattle are rotationally grazed in paddocks of 0.6 to 1ha. However, the grazing blocks are alternated each year between the cattle and sheep (which helps keep worm burdens low), so there is no permanent water system to each paddock. Instead a bowser is used as a temporary supply.
The aim in the spring is to work to a target of two days in each paddock and a rotation of 16 to 18 days, which is gradually lengthened out as growth slows.
This year, to help improve clean outs, paddocks were pre-mowed on every other rotation.
“It is something I would very much want to continue in our grassland management” said James.
With the vast majority of NI prime cattle meeting processor requirements around age, number of residencies and assurance status, it is on weight and grade criteria where cattle often fall outside desired market specification.
Presenting data at the CAFRE/Teagasc webinar last Thursday, LMC Economist Seamus McMenamin highlighted that more dairy origin cattle in the slaughter mix (now over 40% of prime beef) means more cattle are likely to miss targets for grade, but hit targets for weight.
Suckler-bred stock are more likely to go overweight than beef crosses
Just 47% of steers and 55% of heifers grade within the “gold box” of E, U, R, fat class 3, 4- and 4=, and O+3.
In terms of carcase weight, the desired range is 280kg to 380kg, with 59% of steers and 76% of heifers within this target.
However, suckler-bred stock are more likely to go overweight than beef crosses, with 19% of suckler bred cattle killing over 400kg, compared to 7% of beef x dairy. That leaves 62% of sucklers within 280-380kg, compared to 75% of beef crosses.
Supplies
Looking at current numbers on the ground in October 2020, those aged 24 to 30 months are down 9% on the same period in 2019, so cattle supplies are likely to remain tight to the end of the year. But there are 3% more cattle aged 18 to 24 months, and 6% more aged 12 to 18 months, than in 2019. That should mean higher supplies of slaughter cattle in 2021 than seen in 2020.
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